1. Chapter 11Creating Developmentally Appropriate Classrooms The Importance of Age and Developmental Status

2. Focus Questions • How can culture and schooling affect students’ development? • Are there really stages to children’s development? • How do teachers determine what is developmentally appropriate for students?

3. Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) • Providing learning environments, instructional content, and pedagogical practices that are responsive to needs and interests of a period of life. • What is known about childhood development and learning? • What is known about the strengths, interests, and needs of each individual child in the group? • Knowledge of the social and cultural contexts in which children live

4. Economic Aims for Schooling • National Education Goals Panel • All American children will enter school “ready to learn” • Preschools not equitable for families in poverty • 1 in 5 children are living in poverty • Dangers • Major purpose of school is to prepare students for the workforce • Realization that college degrees are required for an increasing number of jobs

5. Cognitive Development Theories • Jean Piaget • Theory of Cognitive Development • Lev Vygotsky • Social Constructivist Theory • Cognitive Structures • Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) • Maria Montessori • Teaching the “whole child”

6. Middle School • Most diverse and varied population • Middle childhood- age range from 7-12 • Educators knowledgeable and committed to young adolescents • Balanced curriculum based on their needs • Range of organizational arrangements • Varied instructional strategies • Full exploratory program • Comprehensive advising and counseling • Continuous progress • Evaluation procedures compatible with age • Cooperative planning • Positive school climate

7. Early Childhood Education • Collaboration • Child study and mental hygiene • Kindergarten • Nursery Schools to Prekindergarten • Great Depression • Children’s Defense Fund • Developmentally appropriate • Working parents • Project Head Start

8. Cognitive Revolution • 1950-1960s- new respect for children’s intellectual resources • Piaget: “American question” • How much can we accelerate the pace of children’s cognitive learning in order to create smarter adults? • More concerned with process than content • Social knowledge • Howard Gardner- goal is understanding

9. School Experiences • Nature vs. Nurture debate • Individual differences and development domains- motor, cognitive, language/communication, social/emotional • Milestones and delays • Child Study Movement- developmentally appropriate practices